Boxes and Books
by Heather-Lass
Summary: The Weasley attic stores more than just books. My own fluff story about how Ron and Hermione might have gotten together. Takes place 6th year holiday, no HPB spoilers except the very begining.


Title: Boxes and Books

Author: Heather-lass

Disclaimer: All characters and places and stuff belong to JKR. I just do with them what I please

Summary: Fluffy oneshot. 'Nuff said.

Time: Christmas Break

Year: Aw…shoot. It would be 6th or 7th I guess, but you'll have to pretend that the stuff in HBP didn't happen because…

Place: The Burrow

So without further adieu…

Ron was going through his closets and trunk to see if there was anything he forgot to pack. He didn't want to leave anything IMPORTANT like he did last time (although it wasn't his fault his mom decided to wash his lucky Chudley Cannons boxers right when he was about to pack them). If Hermione had found him doing that, she would have been very confused because it was still several days until they had to go back to Hogwarts. He dug through his bookshelf to see if there were any Mad Max the Muggle comic books he'd forgot. He stared at the shelf for a minute.

"Bugger, I should just go put some of these first and second year books up in the attic. I'm not going to need them, and if I do, I bet Mione's got hers."

He collected a handful, put them in the box that Hagrid had sent him some Christmas cakes (actually edible for once) in, and started up the stairs.

Ron didn't go into the attic much. The ghoul spent a lot of time there and Fred and George had convinced him at the age of 5 that there were spiders up there. The reality was that they just wanted to keep HIM away from there so they could plot naughty things there. If Ron had been older he would have remember the household pest charm on the house, which was one of the things that kept Molly sane. No spiders, flies, rats (except Scabbers) or other pests could live there. Sadly, the charm didn't apply to the garden, hence the gnomes.

When he reached the attic, he set down his box and looked around. There weren't a lot of boxes around, mostly because his brothers passed their old school stuff down to him and Ginny. There was some old furniture that his mother's brothers had bought them a long time ago. He knew from talking to Dad that she didn't like to be reminded of them so the furniture went up to the attic.

Dad had some old muggle stuff up there too like a bicycle (which, rumor has it, he actually got Mum to try out back before Bill was born). There was also a red Radio Flyer wagon. It was muggle too but Dad had saved money and bought it for her for an anniversary gift. She'd seen them all over the muggle village nearby and had to admit it was dead useful. Ron had many fond memories of being put in there with Ginny, Fred and George when he was very small and carted down to the pond for a picnic. The food baskets were wisely cared by Bill and Charlie to prevent Ron and the twins from eating all the food.

Several boxes were labeled "Baby Ginny" and Ron guessed this was her baby clothes and toys saved for possible grandchildren. But behind that was a box labeled "Hermione" and Ron had no idea what that contained. So he walked over to it to find out. Opening the box, he saw books from her first couple of years of Hogwarts.

FLASHBACK TO SEVERAL DAYS AGO

Hermione groaned as she looked at all the books on her bed. Normally, she loved books, she ADORED books, but at the moment she was rather wishing she had a few less. Ginny giggled from across the room where she was tearing apart her closet looking for some article of clothing known only to her.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Molly Weasley walked into the room with a stack of newly washed clothes. "My goodness that's a lot of books, they can't possibly all fit in your trunk even without everything else."

"That's what I was thinking. I love books but why did EVERYONE have to give me them for Christmas. I'll never get them all back to Hogwarts."

"Well, let's see." She walked over to the bed. "Hermione, some of these books are from your first year! You haven't been bringing ALL your books with you every year, have you?"

"Well…I couldn't 2nd year, but after that I got a new expandable trunk. It fits a lot more, but I'm not sure I could lift it."

"Tell you what dear, why don't you put your basic books from the first few years in a box in the attic. When you come next summer for Bill's wedding, you can take it back to your parent's house."

"Well…" Hermione critically eyed the piles.

"Yeah, do that Mione. We have the same ones anyways…I'll leave the last two years home and you leave the first three and between the two of us, we should have all the books."

"Alright. That trunk was rather heavy on the way here. I had to have Bill help me haul it."

END FLASHBACK

So that's what Hermione did with her books, he thought. I thought her trunk looked emptier. He was about to go back downstairs when a book that said "Hogwarts Photos" caught his eye. He carefully eased it out of the box and went over to a maroon sofa with it.

He opened it and found that there were few pictures from first year and by the looks of it they had all been taken by Hagrid or Professor McGonagall. He didn't think they'd been the type to do that but that's what Mione's clear curly writing read under the photo. He saw one of Harry been sorted and one of the unconscious troll (good moment that one, eh). There was Harry's first Quidditch game and a lovely picture that showed Gryffindor winning House Cup. Second year yielded several pictures of Lockhart were in there and blacks spots showed where she must have scribbled out previously doodled hearts. There weren't a particularly lot of pictures owing to the time she spend petrified but one he particularly remembered was at the end-of-term feast and it showed him, Hermione, Harry and Ginny.

There were a lot more pictures from third year and it was clear that most were from Colin Creevy. There was a picture of Professor Grubbly-Plank and Hermione and the baby unicorns and a picture of Ron beating Harry at chess. There was a picture of Harry on Buckbeak and a picture of Lupin, Sirius, Harry and her befor Sirius left to go into hiding. His favorite was a picture of the "dementors" that were really Malfoy and his goons. Since the pictures were wizard pictures it showed them fighting with their robes and yelling.

Forth had some great pictures of the world cup including the one of him obsessing over Krum with the twins behind him singing "Victor, I love you…" Embarassing that one. There was a picture of the four champions that had been cut out of the Daily Prophet and a picture of Harry and Ron after the second task. Not the best picture since it showed them coughing up a lot of water. It was rather funny though because Gabrielle Delacour kept popping up behind them in the picture and giving them bunny ears. There were more of her and Ginny and a few of her and Ginny and Ron just relaxing by the lake waiting for Harry to finish champion stuff. And of course there were pictures of them at the Ball. Ron with his robes and Harry wearing Ron's shirtfront like a bonnet. Ginny and Mione doing Bond Girl poses, Krum flexing his muscles by lifting Mione (Ron glared at this one but cheered when he saw that the caption read "Nice muscles, but very little conversation. It was good while it lasted.") and one of Neville dipping Ginny.

Fifth year didn't have a lot of good photos because of Umbridge but there was one of the three of them, Ginny, the twins and Sirius goofing of at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Ron's favorite was a picture of Sirius next to Mrs. Black's portrait. It was bewitched to be silent and black and white. It looked like an old muggle movie because they would argue, walk out of the view of the picture (Mrs. Black to the next painting), come back and start over. There were more than a few pictures of him playing Quidditch. One shot of the whole team had a little bit of writing next to him that said "Ron has nice muscles". Another one said "That was an awesome block!" next two the picture of his first game where he actually blocked a shot.

This made him pause. Ron started going back through the pictures and noticed that there seemed to be more and more of him in the later years and that they all had little captions by them. The one at the head of sixth year showed them at the start of sixth year with new prefect badges on their robes, grinning at each other and then at the camera. This one said "He's so handsome! Oh…well, at least he's realized I'm a girl." next to it. Ron did a double take. Was it possible that Mione ACTUALLY FANCIED HIM? With a bit of a grin, Ron took a stub of pencil out of his shirt pocket and started to right underneath it.

TWO DAYS LATER

Hermione was starting to finish packing, when she realized something was missing. "Ginny," she hollered down the stairs "have you seen my photo book?"

"No…maybe you put it in the box of books by the attic by mistake!"

"Thanks, I'll go check." She went up the stairs and found the book exactly where she'd left it, not yet knowing that Ron had found it. Ron saw her pass his door with the book. She brought it back downstairs and went to add pictures from the last week in. Flipping back through the book, she stopped at the page that had her favorite picture. That of her and Ron with new prefects badges on. Her eyes grew wide when she realized that there was more writing on the page than before. In Ron's messy writing, it said "Why thank you Mione, and that's not all I've realized."

"Ron!" She yelled.

"What?" he counted to ten from his position outside the door and walked in.

"You found my book and wrote in it!"

"I did."

"Well…why…you…shouldn't…" She bolstered her courage and looked at him. "So what else did you realize?"

He walked over and sat next to her on the bed. "That you fancy me."

"Well…I…completely off the point." Hermione was at a loss for words and Ron rather liked it.

"No, no. I don't think it is. Because you see, there's one more thing I've realized. I fancy you too." And he leaned in to kiss her.

THE END

A/N: Questions? Comments? REVIEW!


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